Petersen



March 31, 1964 K. PETERSEN FURNITURE ANCHORING CUP Filed Jan. 31, 1963 I NVEN TOR. KA/E'S PETERSEN ATTfl/FA EVS United States Patent 3,126,666 FURNITURE ANCI-IORING CUP Kars Petersen, 57 W. 21st St, Holland, Mich. Filed Jan. 31, 1963, Ser. No. 255,231 4 Claims. (Cl. 45-137),

This invention relates to a non-skid cup to anchor feet of appliances and other articles of furniture to the floor.

Furniture appliances such as washing machines, dryers, and refrigerators that incorporate motor operated mechanisms, vibrate during operation. The vibrations cause the unit to move more or less about on the floor, especially if the floor is slightly slanted. To anchor such appliances by bolting them to the floor is not always practical, nor convenient, and requires skilled labor. These bolted clamps leave a permanent scar on the floor.

In addition to anchoring motor-operated appliances to the fioor, it is sometimes desirable to anchor even ordinary furniture such as chairs, sofas, and desks to the floor. This is especially true in institutions such as colleges where careless users roughly shift the furniture about to cause wall damage or damage to' other articles of furniture as they are bumped together. However, to anchor such devices to the floor with bolts and screws, detracts from their beauty, renders the furniture completely immobile, and is permanent in nature. Further, once articles of furniture are anchored to the floor with such means, a permanent scar is left upon their removal. However, the fact remains that, except for clamped or bolted devices, nothing has been available heretofore that is capable of actually anchoring furniture to the floor.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an anchoring cup capable of being installed by anyone, no matter how unskilled, in a few seconds on an article of furniture, either of the appliance type of the ordinary supporting type. Moreover, the non-skid cup of this invention prevents the article from sliding about at all on the floor no matter how heavy the article may be or how great the vibration is, since the greater the weight and vibration on the cup, the greater is the anchoring effect. Yet, the article may be lifted out of the anchoring cup for intended movement as necessary.

It is another object of this invention to provide a nonskid, immovable foot-receiving cup for furniture, especia ly appliances, that can be removed from the floor after a period of use, without damaging the floor. Further, this requires no removal of fasteners from the floor.

It is another object of this invention to provide an attractive feet anchoring cup requiring no fasteners, or tools for installation. Moreover, the cup lends itself to conventional rapid manufacturing techniques. It possesses a large surface anchoring area. The cup may be packaged in its completed form ready for insertion beneath the furniture for anchorage by adhesion, and yet is completely protected against premature adhesion in its packaged form.

Briefly, therefore, the main object of this invention is to provide a conveniently installed furniture-anchoring cup achieving the rigid anchoring capacity of bolted types, yet allowing purposeful moving of the furniture, and enabling removal of the anchoring cup without floor damage.

These and other objects of this invention will be apparent upon studying the following specification in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the novel anchoring cup shown inserted beneath the leg of an article of furniture; and

FIG. 2 is a sectional, elevational view of the cup.

Basically, the invention comprises a furniture anchoring cup having a fiat bottom, a peripheral, upstanding retention ridge around the top to form a receiving cavity 3,126,666 Patented Mar. 31, 1964 for a foot of an article of furniture, an adhering layer on the flat surface including adhesive on one side attaching said layer to the flat surface and pressure responsive adhesive on the opposite side for anchoring the cup to the floor, and a protective cover sheet having a release agent in contact with the second adhesive side to normally protect the adhesive from contact with other articles, but being removable to allow the cup to be adhesively anchored to the floor under the furniture.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, the inventive anchor Ill is basically cup-shaped, i.e. having an upper cavity 12 formed within the upstanding peripheral ridge 14. It has a fiat lower surface 16. The cup is formed of any suitable material such as plastic or metal, but is preferably formed of a plastic such as nylon for optimum attraction and strength. Plastic cups may be formed by conventional molding techniques on a mass production basis.

Coated on the flat bottom 16 is an adhesive layer 18 wherein both sides or surfaces are adherent. The adhesive layer 18 may be a sheet having adhesive coated on opposite sides. The upper surface is more or less permanently bonded to the flat bottom while the lower surface has a pressure sensitive adhesive thereon to adhere to a floor under the weight of an article of furniture, but to be removable from the floor with the cup. The adhesive can conceivably be formed in another way by coating an adherent layer directly on flat surface 16. The pressure responsive adhesive may be any of those conventional known and used, such as the adhesive sold by Minnesota Mining and ManufacturingMMM-T-9002. It may be epoxy based, polyester based, or some other as desired. Preferably, the adhesive is not a permanently curing one, at least on the lower side, but will retain its tackiness over a long period of time without permanently bonding, so that the cup and adhesive coat may be removed from the surface without marking the floor surface in any way.

Over adhesive coating 18 is placed a protective sheet 20 to prevent premature contact with other objects. The upper surface of sheet 20 is preferably coated with a release agent such as a silicone, i.e. an organopolysiloxane, or some other well-known release agent, to enable the sheet to be readily peeled off prior to use, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Thus, the unit can be packaged in quantities of four without premature adhesion occurring between the cups or between the cup and the package.

In use, when an appliance or other article of furniture is to be anchored to the floor, protective sheet 20 is peeled off to expose the contact, pressure-sensitive, adhesive 18. The leg 22 of the article is lifted, cup 10 is placed thereunder, and leg 22 with its foot in the recess 12 of the cup is lowered so that the pressure caused by the weight of the article causes firm and complete adherence of the cup to the floor surface 24.

It has been found in repeated tests, that no matter how great a lateral stress is placed on the article, the cup will not shift on the floor, and thus will not allow the article to shift on the floor. The weight of the article and the vibration normally causing the article to shift, merely cause a firmer adherence to the floor. Yet, the article can be lifted out of a plurality of the cups under all of the feet of the article, for purposeful movement to another location. Further, the cup can he pried loose from the floor after a period of time if necessary.

Certain obvious minor structural modifications may occur to those in the art upon studying this invention. These obvious modifications, if within the principles of this invention, are deemed to be part of this invention, which is to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims and the reasonably equivalent structures to those defined therein.

I claim:

1. A cup for anchoring furniture to the floor, comprising: a cup having a flat bottom and a peripheral, upstanding retention ridge around the top defining a cavity to receive the foot of a leg of an article of furniture; a pressure sensitive adhesive coating adhered to said flat bottom, and being adhesive on both sides to enable said cup to be anchored to the floor; a protective cover sheet normally retained on said coating to prevent contact of said coating with other objects; and said sheet being removable to expose the adhesive coating, enabling said cup to be adhesively anchored to the floor under the weight of an article of furniture.

2. A furniture anchoring cup comprising: a flat bottomed cup having a peripheral upstanding retention ridge defining a cavity for receiving and retaining the foot of a leg of an article of furniture against lateral movement; an anchoring layer having adhesive properties on both sides thereof, with one side being permanently adhered to the flat bottom of said cup and the other side having a pressure sensitive adhesive thereon; a removable protective sheet on the other side, normally protecting said other side from contact with objects, and when removed, allowing said cup to be anchored to the floor under the Weight of an article of furniture.

3. An anchoring cup for furniture comprising: a flat bottomed cup having a peripheral upstanding retention ridge defining a recess for receiving the foot of a leg of an article of furniture; an anchoring layer having adhesive properties on both sides thereof, with one side being permanently adhered to the flat bottom of said cup and the other side having a pressure sensitive adhesive for attachment to the floor; a removable protective sheet on the second side having a releasing agent on its surface in contact with the pressure sensitive adhesive, and normally protecting said second side from contact with objects, and when removed, allowing said cup to be anchored to the floor under the weight of an article of furniture.

4. An anchoring cup for attaching a leg of an article to a flat surface, comprising: a cup having a fiat bottom and a peripheral upstanding retention ridge opposite said flat bottom, to receive the article leg; an anchoring layer having adhesive properties on both sides thereof, With one side being permanently adhered to said flat cup bottom and the other side having a pressure sensitive adhesive for attachment to the flat surface; a removable protective sheet normally covering the second side, and having a releasing agent on its surface in contact with the pressure sensitive adhesive, to normally protect said second side from contact with objects, and when removed, to allow said cup to be anchored to a fiat surface by pressure of an article applied to said cup.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,077,200 Maurer Oct. 28, 1913 1,912,728 Roe June 6, 1933 2,699,628 Auer Jan. 18, 1955 2,776,101 McDermott Jan. 1, 1957 2,875,552 Stillman Mar. 3, 1959 2,995,863 Bright Aug. 15, 1961 

1. A CUP FOR ANCHORING FURNITURE TO THE FLOOR, COMPRISING: A CUP HAVING A FLAT BOTTOM AND A PERIPHERAL, UPSTANDING RETENTION RIDGE AROUND THE TOP DEFINING A CAVITY TO RECEVE THE FOOT OF A LEG OF AN ARTICLE OF FURNITURE; A PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE COATING ADHERED TO SAID FLAT BOTTOM, AND BEING ADHESIVE ON BOTH SIDES TO ENABLE SAID CUP TO BE ANCHORED TO THE FLOOR; A PROTECTIVE COVER SHEET NORMALLY RETAINED ON SAID COATING TO PREVENT CONTACT OF SAID COATING WITH OTHER OBJECTS; AND SAID SHEET BEING REMOVABLE TO EXPOSE THE ADHESIVE COATING, ENABLING SAID CUP TO BE ADHESIVELY ANCHORED TO THE FLOOR UNDER THE WEIGHT OF AN ARTICLE OF FURNITURE. 